Lakewood Memorial is a simple but effective zombie tale. There are no big surprises here but it is a really fun read with lots of action and likeable (and as appropriate some fairly unlikeable) characters. Despite the shortness of the book Best builds the central characters well and has a nice sense of humour with some dialogue that made me chuckle. Most of all he makes you care about the central protagonist, Angie, and her two kids and I for one and plunging straight into volume 2 of the trilogy. ( )

A standard type zombie book that's packed with action from the beginning to the end. Even the first paragraph is violent, as is the last. Actually the last is a cliffhanger since it's a three part series.

Best writes well but keeps everything simple - short paragraphs, hardly any inner monologue, no deviation from zombie attacks and what's going on. It's a gory, vicious ride.

I think the biggest flaw is that the characters aren't that likeable. I'm not talking about the obvious jerks of the crowd, either. The main woman in the book, Angie, is the most likeable of the group, and one of the main driving goals is reuniting with her children. The problem is her children are completely annoying. The little boy Dalton isn't bad, but the fourteen year old Maylee got under my skin. Also, all the characters have such deranged language which doesn't feel natural. I have no issue with swearing in books, especially if the situation warrants it (a zombie apocalypse would make me sound like a truck driver!), but here it almost seems forced and unnatural as they all keep doing it. Almost like it was an image the author wanted to portray for some reason but fell a little short doing.

You certainly won't get bored from slow pacing as the action really is non-stop. A little breathing room would have made it easier to digest, I think.

Overall big zombie fans should dig this book. I was lucky to meet the author and get an autographed copy of this at a convention.

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